Death penalty for man in shopping mall attack

A man, who killed one and injured 14 in a shopping mall rampage in Beijing last year, was sentenced to death for intentional homicide and deprived of political rights for life by a Beijing court on Thursday. 

Last February, Zhu Jiye went into Joy City shopping mall and began attacking customers and staff members in a restaurant with a knife, according to the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court.

Zhu took one restaurant staff member as a hostage when police arrived at the scene. Zhu was later caught by police.

The court said in a statement that Zhu planned the attack and prepared the weapon, killing and injuring innocent people in a bustling public place ahead of the Chinese New Year in order to vent his personal grievances.

"He committed the crime of intentional homicide through his actions and it is extremely serious. Thus, Zhu should be severely punished according to the law," the court added.

Xinhua reported in February last year that a witness saw Zhu suddenly taking a knife out of his bag and began attacking people indiscriminately.

After Zhu's arrest in February last year, police released a statement in which it stated that Zhu dropped out of middle school and left home at a young age. He had been in many provinces including Henan, Jiangsu and Hebei to make a living and was obsessed with video games.

Due to his struggles in life and at work, Zhu was involved in many disputes with his employers and began holding grudges toward society. These made him think of taking revenge, police said, adding that he had been unemployed since the end of 2017.